DARKNESS OVER THE LAND
I won’t be coming at all, though, if I don’t secure us a Road Warrior-type vehicle to get out to the Racetrack. The roads are treacherous. That’s par for the course in Death Valley.
Heart of Darkness
Our first day in the valley greeted us with a dust storm that lashed the land with 60 mile per hour winds as Darkness and I navigated our way south. Thousand foot-high walls of sand blew across the basin blotting out the blue skies above. Tumbleweeds and dust devils blew across Highway 190 as Darkness and I made our way through the Devil’s Cornfield.
As we descended below sea level to visit our favorite haunts, the dust storm cleared a bit.
We walked through a blazing white canyon covered in fantastic carpets of salt crystals sparkling under a clearing sky. Next, we strolled through Darkness’ Rock Garden, a surreal expanse of volcanic boulders that somehow landed ages ago next to the salt flats. We then drove down to Mormon Point at the southern end of the massive salt plain where the salt is the thickest at over 9,000 feet deep. This is where, like a bat, the winged Goth goddess clings to the cliff’s side.
Returning north, Darkness and I descended from the Dúath of Darkness and made our way onto the salt.
“Life as we know it is coming to an end,” Darkness said gazing far across the shattered salt. “We must make decisions about how we spend our days.”
Normally I would shun such morbidity, but I desperately wanted a taste of her wind-whipped world.
“Whadaya doin’ tonight?” I asked suggestively. “I could help you lighten up.”
Darkness turned swiftly and stared into my soul.
“Do not disparage my words! I would that it were not so, but the wretched writing is on the wall.”
I started to resign myself to her doom when she continued, “Do not despair. This most astonishing and miraculous land will survive, and our love is eternal. With this knowledge we shall battle on.”
She moved in closer and with a sinister smile added, “Let’s give ‘em Hell.”
